Friends are Family
by Girl From Another World
Summary: When Marlene McKinnon is disowned by her family for being a blatant blood traitor amongst their privileged and elitist ranks, she finds herself feeling utterly alone. When her friends attempt to console her, she can't stand it and runs away from them. Will it take a certain someone special to convince her that she's not alone, and that she has a family standing right beside her.


**Friends are ****Family **

**This is a one shot detailing when Marlene McKinnon got disowned, and the struggle her friends (and Sirius Black in particular) had in trying to convince her that she was not alone, because they were her family too.**

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Lily Evans POV

"Don't you dare push me away Mar." I cursed as my best friend stalked out of the common room, head down and shoulders hunched as if she was attempting to curl up inside herself. Immediately I began to chase after the blonde head which had disappeared through the circular door, but someone's arms pulled me back.

"Give her some time to cool off." James murmured, his hand moving off of my shoulder to encircle my waist and pull me against his side. I sighed.

"She shouldn't be alone this late. Especially not now.…" I worried, glancing up fleetingly at my boyfriend's stoney face.

"I've got it." Came the voice of Sirius from behind us, already marching towards the door.

"Sirius -"

"Don't worry I'll keep my distance, but I'll keep her safe." He argued calmly, throwing his hands up in defense, before twisting and darting under the doorway.

We'd made a scene, and the rest of the Gryffindors were only just now returning to their own business, rather than listening to the loud argument Mar and I had had moments before.

"I can't believe….." I whispered, failing to find the words which would describe my heartache for my best friend.

"I can." James' voice was hard and unemotional, and his face matched it. He knew the McKinnon's better than I did, having only met them once while he'd spent a childhood being Mar's friend.

Marlene's mum had died in an accident when she was 5. It was a wrong place wrong time kind of situation, and it had broken the family in a way in which only death could. Marlene has 5 older sisters and one older brother, with her being the youngest of the seven. Her father had been a top charm experimentalist for the ministry, but the death of his wife tore him to pieces, and he left his job on the spot. Every day since he's sat at home, or tended to the garden, rarely speaking or even looking at his children. Marlene's brother and sisters raised her, did her washing, taught her right from wrong, loved her. But it's a tiresome life being part parent at so young, and when their grandmother offered to take the youngest of the family into her care, the weary siblings who yearned to live their own lives could see no fault in this idea.

With all the love they held for Marlene, their own understandable selfishness meant that they overlooked their grandmother's flaws. She was rich, richer than the rest of the McKinnons by far, and could provide a comfortable and happy life for Mar if she wanted. But Sagranda McKinnon saw her wealth and pureblood family name as a sign that she was worth more than other wizards and witches, and it showed in the disgusted glances she threw at passers-by when she rarely left the house. She was discriminatory and elitist, and her ideas ruined the lives of those she deemed inferior. She was exactly the type of people who worshipped Tom Riddle.

So from her tenth birthday, when she was adopted by Sagranda as her protège, Marlene started her new education. She learnt the downfalls and stupidity of muggles, how muggle born witches and wizards were cheating purebloods of jobs and rights, the supremacy of the McKinnon name, far different from the curriculum she grew to love and hide behind at Hogwarts. Mar had never been a quiet child, her and her best friend James Potter could stir up quite the storm when they were in the mood. But there was something so intimidating about her grandmother, something in the way that she stared down at her as if she could never reach her level; something so terrifying that Marlene could rarely find the courage to stand up to her grandmother. When she did, well she felt enough wrath then to warn her against doing it again for a long time. Once the Potter's made themselves known as 'blood traitors', Sagranda did everything she could to keep her granddaughter away from James and his family. But there was nothing she could do to keep Marlene away from James at school, and Mar revelled in her time at Hogwarts, where she could escape the supremacy and claustrophobia of home.

Her older sisters had been guilt-tripped into elite arranged marriages by their grandmother, and her brother only escaped because he shamed himself into exile. Samuel, Mar's only brother, was gay, and had managed to hide it from Sagranda for years, only to be snitched on in the end by Freya, the second youngest sister. Freya was the favourite, the timid and the snooty and anxious child, who would do anything to stay on her grandmother's good side. She was only 16 when she announced her brother's greatest and most perilous secret to the oldest living member of the McKinnon line (Marlene was 10), and Samuel was disowned within minutes. He was 24 at the time, having graduated Hogwarts with top marks and going straight into auror training. He was a fully trained auror at 24, already part of the investigation into the little-known terrorist Voldemort, and greatly admired in his department. Of course, that all changed once he was disowned. Sagranda didn't do it quietly either, she made sure that everyone knew he was no longer a part of the family. And why. A month later and Samuel had a desk job at the bottom of the auror department. He didn't struggle for money, the job still paying quite well, but he was banned from field work and taken straight off of any major cases. Fortunately for him, Voldemort's antics were not considered a large threat at the time, and so Samuel remained one of the top investigators. When it eventually became apparent that Voldemort was actually a larger threat than the auror department had anticipated (though Samuel had voiced his concerns on this since the beginning), no one could ignore the fact that Samuel McKinnon, gay and disowned or not, was the most briefed on this case. He knew nearly as much about Tom Riddle as Dumbledore himself did, and that made him a valuable asset to the auror department. So he was re-promoted to a field agent, and as the times got more dire and people began to die because of their blood status, the aurors stopped caring that Samuel was a disowned pureblood. It no longer seemed as big of a deal.

When Marlene was sixteen, at the end of fifth year, she received a telegram from the ministry. Her brother had gone missing in action, there was no hope of recovering him. Eventually, they found out that he had been captured, tortured and killed by Death Eaters. It was the first time that a child at Hogwarts had lost a family member to Voldemort's growing supporters. No one forgot the look on Marlene's face when she opened the letter.

So her brother was dead, and the rest of her sisters, tired of fighting against the pureblood supremacy and living up to their grandmother's expectations allowed her to marry them off to respectable pureblood men of wealthy and renowned bloodlines. In the Summer holidays between sixth and seventh year, her grandmother announced to Marlene that she would not be returning to Hogwarts in September, as it would not be necessary for her to have any NEWTs when she was going to be a housewife to Amycus Carrow. This was the first Marlene had heard of any arranged marriage for her, and the words chilled her to the bone. She had hoped her grandmother would wait until she had graduated to arrange any marriage, and by that point Mar could disappear into a ministry department or healer training, anything which her grandmother couldn't pull her out of. She attempted to insist against it of course, she reasoned and shouted and screamed and threatened, but her grandmother knew people in high places, supported the cause which had killed her grandson, she terrified Marlene into submittance. For a while, that was that, and even Mar began to believe that this was her fate. But when me and the rest of our friendship group turned up banging at her door, demanding to know why she hadn't replied to a single one of their letters, it was hard for her to sink into the mould her grandmother had created for her.

We broke her out of the prisoned home she was trapped in, and Marlene made it to Hogwarts without a scratch on her…..physically. Inside she was scared-shitless and panicking and so tired of fighting back. She received howlers from her grandmother everyday, and despite our warnings, she always opened them. She believed it would remind her that this was a family she didn't want to be a part of. In truth, it only made her feel guilty. In the corridors the purebloods stared at her in disgust, and she feared the malice she could see in their eyes. It made her wonder how many of them would graduate or ditch school at some point to become a death eater. How many of them desired in their hearts to become a murderer? How many of them looked at the blood traitors like her, or the muggle-borns or even proud half-bloods, and imagined that a world in which they were dead would be better?

When the Christmas holidays arrived, she went to stay with James and his mum. With shame and secrecy, she knew that if she'd gone home to her grandmother that holiday, she would never have returned to school. But this meant that when she did return to school, Dumbledore greeted her with the news she'd been fearing. She'd been disowned.

She was numb and she barely heard the words, instead she thanked the headmaster for telling her, and walked away without a tear or a frown. She should have been grateful, she thought to herself. She was finally free of her prejudiced and controlling grandmother, free from marrying a death eater ten years older than her, free of her mentally absent father, and all the responsibilities which came with being a member of a respected and wealthy pureblood family. She wished that she felt this way, wished that she was brave enough to not feel guilty, or sure enough of her beliefs to know that she was doing the right thing by fighting against Voldemort and everything he stood for, rather than blindly supporting like her grandmother.

That was why I had confronted her. It took me four days to get out of Marlene why she was so downcast, why spending Christmas break away from her grandmother hadn't made her hopeful.  
"She disowned me." Mar had told me quietly, attempting to seem calm and composed, as if she had already come to terms with this news.  
"Oh." My face had quickly fallen into the grimace of someone who didn't really know what to say. Mar had always said that she loved that I had a big heart, but that I was sorely terrible at comforting people. She laughed at my awkward face whenever someone cried. However this time, the pity and worry in my eyes only boiled the blood in Marlene's veins.  
"It's fine Lil, they were a shit family anyway." Marlene tried to reason, hoping to get me off of her back.  
"Doesn't mean you can't be upset….or angry." I attempted to argue, my posture straightening and eyes hardening as I attempted to make Mar see that it was okay to feel something other than calm.  
"Well, I'm not. My elitist and prejudice grandmother who supports Voldemort disowned me - I'm grateful actually!" Mar's voice had begun to rise as she stood up from her bed in their dorm room and begun to walk down towards the common room. I hurried after her, trying to think of the right thing to say. "I no longer have to marry a death eater, who one of my cousins informed me is actually a murderer as well, I can take my NEWTs and do well in them and feel fucking proud because I DID IT FOR MYSELF."

We were downstairs and the rest of the common room was listening now, shallow mutters of interest and shock a low undertone to Marlene's outrage and upset.  
"I know Mar, they don't deserve you. You're too good for them." I once again had tried to argue, deciding that it was probably better to go along with the anger which Marlene was failing to try and hide.  
"BUT I DESERVE THEM!" Marlene exploded with fire in her eyes and and an aching heart. I took a step back. Three of the four marauders had stood up from the seats they had claimed in the common room, watching the argument with concern and ready to intervene. Dorcas and Remus were nowhere to be seen, probably in a broom cupboard somewhere without a care in the world; . But Marlene was devastated, and furious with her grandmother for disowning her, but even more furious with herself for being devastated.

"I deserve to have a family, whether they love and appreciate me or not. I. Deserve. A. Family." Mar stated, her voice shaking with the tears which threatened to fall.  
"I know Mar, and I'm-"  
"No you don't understand Lily!" She shouted, her arms waving wildly at me. "You have a dad who loves you with everything in his heart. My Dad hasn't spoken to me since I was five, my siblings raised me and then decided that I was no longer worth the effort, they let themselves get whisked into unhappy but advantageous marriages. My brother, the only one who put the effort into to actually be _a brother_ was murdered by the same people who my grandmother tried to marry me off to!" She paused; allowing herself a couple of deep breaths before she continued.

"Your sister may be jealous of you Lily." She said, her voice cold but strong. This she believed in at least, she was sure of what she felt and she was voicing it to the entirety of Gryffindor house. "But she is still in your life. I am _alone_. Completely and utterly _alone_. So don't try and tell me that you understand - because you don't. You have no idea what this is like."

And with that she began to walk off.  
"Don't you dare push me away Mar." Was my final shout to her. The moment the words left my mouth I regretted them. They didn't sound like me, they were just the shock and anger that I had handled the situation so badly escaping through my stupid mouth. So James held me back while Sirius chased after Marlene, and all I could do was wait until she came back, and hope that she wasn't furious at me.

James and I sat on the sofa in silence for a while, his arm around me as we waited to see if Sirius or Marlene would return. Eventually Dorcas and Remus came stumbling through the common room door together, smiling and laughing as you'd expect any couple to. It was hard to break their bubble. They were both strong, having endured hardship and loss in their lives; but Dorcas was louder and hid her vulnerability better than Remus did. When Dorcas was excited or happy or angry, everyone knew it. But when she was feeling vulnerable or sad or scared, no one knew. Not even her friends. She was good at hiding it, too good, and often it did her more harm than good. Remus ended up being the only one she would let in during those moments when she would normally not. Remus on the other hand, failed at attempting to hide his emotions. It's a good thing in his case, or otherwise none of us would have discovered that he was a werewolf, and then he might never have discovered that in all honesty some people don't give a shit. We love him _for him_, werewolf or not.

Thankfully Pete did the talking this time. I watched as he quietly relayed this evening's events to the couple, noting how softly he said Mar's name. I often forgot how close they were, that they were as close friends as Remus and I were. Their smiles faded but neither looked too shocked. In reality I should have expected this outburst to come at some point, Mar was hurting and despite the strong face she put on, she was only human. It was only us five left in the common room now, everyone else gone to bed or scared out of the common room by the scene we made.

It was another hour before we heard anything, and I still have no idea how James found out where we needed to go. One moment he was shifting up from the sofa, murmuring that he needed the toilet, and when he came back he said that Sirius thought Marlene had calmed down enough to come and speak to her. Remus and Peter nodded calmly like this made complete sense, and not at all like James really had no way of speaking to Sirius from the toilet in his dorm room. Dorcas and I looked to each other in confusion, but something about the surety in James' face and the other two boys' confidence in him made me go along with it too. It didn't seem like the right time to question this. Later or tomorrow maybe.  
"They're in the clock tower." He said as we all stood up. His eyes flickered to Dorcas and I in worry, realising that we would have worked out the four boys have some sort of secret they were keeping from us. Probably one of many. Again, I didn't question his knowledge, instead I smiled at him, letting him know that I wasn't going to ask for his secrets. Yet.

It was past curfew, and any professor could have found us. But curfews had become the least of our worries over the past few months, so we stuck to the shadows and listened out for teachers. Somehow, James got us to the clock tower without anyone derailing our plans, and there was Sirius, sitting on the floor, back against the wall as he pondered something. You could see the dark worry in his face, though his rebellious hair had flopped in front of his eyes. Another couple of months and you could plait it. Godric knows a man bun was already his favourite hairstyle.

He didn't smile when he saw us, which was odd for him, but I decided maybe a later date would be better to try and work him out. I needed to get Marlene sorted first. Sirius got to his feet, already climbing the final stairs to where we presumed Marlene would be sitting. We followed, glancing at each other in anticipation of who would speak and what they were going to say. It suddenly occurred to me that maybe all of us coming was a bad idea, Mar had sought isolation, and suddenly our entire group was going to bombard her with our presence, and questions, and attempted reassurance. Too late now.

She was sitting on the window seat, staring out at the forest, though the lack of moon thanks to the night clouds meant that very little could be seen. Already condensation had formed on the window panes, and I shivered as we stepped up into the wide circular room. Room might be the wrong word, in truth it was just the top of the tower where the large panelled steeple began. If you looked up, all you saw was a darkened cavern. It was cold and decrepit up here, not exactly the best place to figure out your life problems. The last time I had been up here was two weeks after James' Dad had died, back in November. He'd spiralled, his fury and grief and fear all spilling out at once. He'd behaved at the funeral, his confused heart couldn't overpower his brain in that aspect, even through the shaking hands and insistent tears he stayed strong for his mum. Even Euphemia Potter wouldn't have been able to bare being made a widow and her son breaking down at the same time. But the moment he was back at Hogwarts he fell apart. He barely attended lessons, most of the time we didn't know where he was, and when we did see him he was as drunk and angry. We let him wallow in his self-pity for a bit, but after two weeks enough was enough. He wasn't even mourning, he was avoiding mourning with the drink and the head-splitting anger. So Sirius and I cornered him up here, in this doomy tower steeple with the clock ticking away at us as if we were already too late. He laughed at us at first, mocked us and made it seem like our efforts to get the James who we loved back were futile. Sirius and I had been calm, agreeing to start off this intervention with patience rather than our own anger. Of course eventually his insults and jabs and echoing laughter had gotten to Sirius, then the shouting started. I'd only been going out with James for little over a month, and honestly this change in him terrified me, but I had to stand strong and hold myself up, because he was terrified too and taking it out on himself in this brutal way. Eventually we got it into his thick skull that he was allowed to be angry and sad and scared, but that this just wasn't the way to do it, and reluctantly he came crawling back. A week later we lay in his bed together (the perks of having our own rooms as heads), and as he cried into my neck he whispered that he was sorry over and over again. It wasn't until then that I realized I would take the abuse and tears and shouting from him and for him, anything for him.

"Hey Mar." It was James who bit the bullet first, daring to speak. She turned to look at him, her eyes narrowing as she regarded our concerned faces with contempt.  
"Look, it's not ideal, and it's not exactly what I want, no matter how vile and controlling my grandmother is - but I've been disowned and that's that. So if you could give me a couple of weeks to get over it and you know sort things out without constantly asking me if I'm okay…...I would really appreciate it." You could tell from the inanimate way she spoke that she'd been practicing this speech for a while.

"Okay." Dorcas said simply, stepping up next to James. Despite being only five foot, she was a force to be reckoned with when she wanted, and we could all see it the way her eyes settled on Marlene menacingly. "But we're gonna be there every step of the way."  
"Dorcas…." She sighed, rubbing her forehead as if her best friend was a headache she could get rid of. Unfortunately for Marlene, Dorcas was a bit more stubborn than that.  
"No. You don't get to do that." Her voice was controlled and firm, everything that Marlene's wasn't. She needed us so desperately, but every fiber in her body told her that she couldn't rely on other people, she couldn't be weak. "I'm not sure if you remember how this friendship thing works, but it usually means that we _help_ each other."

Marlene was silent, and so James tried. "Mar you can have your space, you can have time and we'll respect that. But we won't stand by you and act like we have no idea what you're going through."  
"But you don't." Now she spoke, and as she raised her head from her downcast stare, you could see every part of her breaking at once. "You have no idea what's happening to me James. Your Dad is dead, but he died loving you, and your Mum is an angel sent from heaven. My Dad is probably sitting at home, blindly agreeing to my Grandma's desire to disown me because he couldn't _give a damn about me_. There is a war raging around us, and it's tearing families apart because of racist and harmful ideologies. That's not something I want to be a part of, I am proud to say that I will fight against that with every opportunity that I get." She paused, tears rolling down her face and now, after all the interrogation from us and shouting from me, only now did she truly break down. "_Why can't they just love me?"_

James got to her before I did, but she pushed him away and shrivelled up inside herself, curling up against the window and letting the sobs fall from her lips. James stumbled back to me, his face shocked without idea of what to do. So we all stood there, with no idea what to do.

"I know what you're going through." Came a deep, troubled voice from behind me. The biggest blood traitor in recent history stepped forward, his black hair hanging in front of his face. But he turned to look back at us, swallowing as he tried to ascertain if he was doing the right thing, and in his eyes I saw a burning man.

Sirius was a player and a ladies man, he had prowess and a reputation for being perfect for one night stands, _but nothing else_. Never had I seen him express interest in a girl beyond a snog or maybe sex. And this was why. Because he was in love, with the one girl who was strong enough to stand alone from him. His best friend's surrogate sister, the one girl he was actually scared - no terrified to hurt. The only other disowned Gryffindor.

Marlene looked up now, curiosity and fatigue mixing on her face. I wasn't sure if anyone else had worked out, but from the look on Remus' face, he knew his friend well enough for the realisation to dawn on him now. Or maybe he already knew. But James, bless James in all his innocent ignorance, could not see his adopted brother falling for his adopted sister. It was probably for the best…..for now.

"I know how it feels." He said simply. Sirius wasn't exactly a man of many words, and if he was prattling on about something, it certainly wasn't the profound meanings of life. But it was clear in that moment that simple words were what Marlene needed. She needed someone to dumb down the situation, to bring it back into proportion. "You're hating yourself for wanting to be a part of that family, despite their prejudices and everything they've put you through. Trust me, I've been there, and it will pass." He glanced slightly over to James, who was watching him with careful regard and odd contempt. I took his hand in mine, attempting to force him into taking a step back, so Sirius, the only person who Marlene seemed to be listening to, could get through to her. His face seemed to relax slightly, but his body remained rigid and was turned almost threateningly towards the other dark haired boy. But I nodded encouragingly, and that seemed to be enough for him. I couldn't help but think that this might turn into some form of bad blood between James and Sirius.

"How did you get through it?" I breathed a sigh of relief. She'd spoken, responded to Sirius and it wasn't in an attempt to get us to stop helping her. Sirius ran a hand through his hair, pushing it back against his scalp before it flopped back to the sides of his head in a movement of stress. Rarely did Sirius reveal his emotions, or what he went through with his family, years of neglect meaning that closing up was an automatic reaction now.

"I had you lot." Marlene's eyes narrowed, trying to see if Sirius was just speaking on my behalf. But he didn't give her a chance to object, and continued speaking. "When I was kicked out for the first time, I went stumbling to James' house, when I got the letter telling me I shouldn't come home for Christmas break you lot decided to stay here with me. With every slap and punch and kick I received from my father, you were there to patch me back up, Lily and Dorcas were there to tell me it would be alright, Remus and Pete and James gave me places to sleep and made me laugh so hard that it made it impossible to think that I was alone." She didn't blush, nor give any action that showed that he'd acknowledged her help in him getting back on his feet. But _his_ voice _did_ tremble when he spoke about her, and for a second his eyes flicked away from her, unsure of where to look in his own embarrassment.

"So we're going to be here for you too. I'll be here to tell you that you're never, never alone. Lily and Dorcas will be your shoulder to cry on, and be annoyingly always around when you need them. Remus, James and Pete will make jokes and annoy you so much that you won't be able to ignore them. _We will be there_, every step of the way. Because we're your family too Mar."

He'd taken enough steps closer to her throughout his little speech so that he was in front of her now, crouching before her as she surveyed the room. She looked at each of us in turn, her eyes settling on me second to last. It was a warm glance of observation and apology, and a small smile danced upon my lips as she finally looked to Sirius. They watched each other for a few seconds, meanings and messages being passed between the two without the rest of us being able to understand.

"Okay." She murmured, and finally she buried herself into Sirius's chest, his long arms wrapping around her in the most secure embrace she'd ever felt.

She was going to be alright, and finally, someone had managed to get it into her thick stubborn skull, that her friends were her family too.

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**So what did you think? Sirius and Marlene are on of my favourite duos, so I might end up writing some more one-shots of them if this one-shot gets a good response.**


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